Our Team

General Management

Leo Resig

CEO & Co-Founder

Family has always come first with Leo. A proud father to a beautiful daughter, Paris and his amazing wife, Tiffany.

Hailing from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Leo Resig is the second of four children. He has an older brother, John, who is the co-founder and business partner in Chive Media Group. He also has two younger sisters, Emily and Megan who run theCHIVE’s sister destination, TheBerry.com.

Leo’s parents instilled a work ethic at a young age and they found child labor loopholes for him to caddy at the tender age of 13. He has since had over 50 jobs where he learned what he loved but mostly what he did not. His array of experience swayed him to be an entrepreneur and control his own destiny. He learned the facts of life through some startup failures but has always lived life with his blinders off and considers himself a futurist and a generally lucky dude. He is famous for having at least one bad idea every day.

A graduate of Indiana University’s with a SPEA degree in Management in 2003, Leo learned nothing about business. His post college professional careers consisted of a bartender, server, screenplay writer and a personal banker at Wells Fargo. It wasn’t until he moved to LA in 2005 where he landed a job as an office manager at a creative agency in Hollywood that he got the bug for digital advertising. He was promoted to the company’s first Ad Ops manager of their newly established digital media department where he learned there was more to online advertising than pop up ads.

His job at the agency led him to another adops job at Gorilla Nation (now Evolve Media), on the publisher side. This is where Leo learned how websites were monetized. At the tail end of his tenure at Gorilla Nation, Leo and his brother John started a celebrity gossip blog, Derober.com to capitalize on the celeb gossip trend. At the same time, Leo transferred from Venice Beach to Chicago with Gorilla Nation to find a nice midwestern girl to settle down with (which he did). John and Leo quickly realized they hated celebrity gossip and found themselves constantly cruising foreign viral photo blogs for a quick laugh. So they switched gears and started a photo blog in November 2008 as a one stop shop for curated viral photos in long scroll gallery form. With Leo living in Chicago and John living in Venice, they combined the CHI from Chicago and VE from Venice to form theCHIVE.com. (Fun fact, theCHIVE was almost named DarbyGunpowder.com) It was an instant hit and Leo moved back to Venice to build the business with John. Their first hire was their cousin Bob who they saved from his serving career at CPK.

It started as two brothers blogging on the couch, drinking beer with Top Gear playing in the background. Chive Media Group has grown to nearly 100 employees strong with a thriving e-comm business, nationwide beer line, a multi-city music festival and a charity that has raised millions of dollars and changed hundreds of peoples lives.

Leo and his family now reside in Austin, TX where they relocated the company from Venice in August, 2013.

John Resig

President & Co-Founder

John Resig is the co-owner and President, and I use the title loosely, of theCHIVE.com and TheBerry.com and is the oldest and most immature Resig, which says a lot. John lives in here in paradise (Venice, CA) with his idiot cousin, Rick. If John ever turns up dead, Rick did it.

John landed the role of Deputy Kevin Ellis on the hit HBO vampire drama, True Blood, in 2008. He is currently filming the 3rd season and, yes, it’s totally badass.

John thinks he’s Peter Pan and has no plans to leave an emotional state exceeding that of a college Freshman, ever.

Alen Durbuzovic

Chief Technical Officer

A proud father of two bad ass boys… oh, and also a very loving husband. Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia (not Russia). Survived the Bosnian war (under siege in Sarajevo), so don’t mess with this guy. Moved to ‘Merica to pursuit the American Dream. Guess what… He’s working @theCHIVE and living the dream. While studying Computer Sciences at UCSB, back in the early 2000’s, Alen co-founded Service Objects, Inc., which is still considered as the industry leader in the lead and contact validation space. 10 years after, in 2011 Alen also co-founded Foundero, Inc., which is known for their location based platform called zLocation. At the end of 2012, Alen joined the Chive Media Group team with the goal of overlooking all things tech across all the different CMG properties. Quote: “Shit breaks, and shit breaks all the freaking time. Deal with it!”

Eric Spielman

Chief Strategy Officer

Eric currently runs product development & strategy for all of Resignation’s media properties. He joined in 2012, bringing digital media experience from both public companies and startups. Hailing from NY with a brief stop in Chicago for his MBA, he is now holding down the fort at theCHIVE’s famous Venice Beach office . Eric is an aspiring mediocre golfer and his musical influences include Kris Kross, Christoper Cross and Kris Kristofferson.

Mike Grisko

Chief Financial Officer

As CFO Mike oversees strategic planning, corporate development, financial operations and administrative functions for the company. Prior to joining Chive Media Group, Mike worked as an investment banker in Chicago and London, so he now has a closet full of suits he’s looking to donate. Most recently Mike worked for Moelis & Company focusing on M&A, capital markets, restructuring and advisory assignments within the TMT sector. During his days at the University of Illinois Mike was lucky enough to nab the girl next door (literally she lived next door). He and his wife Corey are now proud, soon-to-be, parents of 2.

Joseph Bonavita

General Counsel

Joe is Resignation’s General Counsel. Joe received his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in 2006. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2001, with a degree in Finance and Business Economics. Before joining Resignation, Joe was a private practice attorney with a Chicago-based law firm for seven years. In a perfect world, Joe’s story might go something like this:As a child, he went on an adventure with a group of his friends searching for the lost treasure of Chester Copperpot. In high school, he traveled through time in a phone booth, encountering historical figures on an Excellent Adventure.

He gained local notoriety after winning a split-decision victory over local favorite, Daniel LaRusso, in the finals of the “All Valley Karate Tournament.” His band then earned worldwide fame when they were selected to headline the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Once, he took a Day Off, saw the sights of Chicago, went to a Cubs game, and rode a parade float, without raising any suspicion of his absence. After his rug was stolen in a case of mistaken identity (that rug really tied the room together), he became a world-class bowler. He was eventually selected to an elite flight school in Miramar, under the code name “Maverick,” where he saved America from a national crisis and was awarded a Red Ryder B.B. Gun for his valiant service.

David Evans

VP of Monetization & Audience Development

David is a proud new member of the Chive Media Group family, currently residing in San Francisco with his wife Sarah, daughter Eloise, and son Samuel. He serves as Head of Performance Ad Sales at theCHIVE, focusing on remnant inventory and advertisers seeking efficiency and ROI. He is originally from Atlanta, Georgia and a graduate of the University of Georgia. While college football wasn’t a major, it was certainly the most important emphasis of his 4 years in Athens - somehow he graduated with honors with a BBA in Sales and Marketing. When he’s not in the San Francisco office or meeting with clients around the country, you can find David on the golf course.

Blake Hochberger

VP of Channel Sales

DMP, PMP, SSP, DSP… throw any three letters together and Blake can speak to them with conviction (even if they’re made up). Programmatic acronyms are second nature to Blake who has a wealth of media experience on both the buy and sell-side of the digital media business. Beginning with selling broadcast for CBS Radio in Chicago and honing his digital skills at Mindshare Chicago, he eventually grew tired of the long winters and moved to Austin, TX. He is currently the Director of all things Programmatic at Chive Media Group, known best for theCHIVE.com, probably the best site in the world. In this role, he oversees all strategy, operations, and sales of programmatic media including the implementation, management, and activation of the company’s preferred DMP in order to offer each individual client the most interesting programmatic media possible.

Born and raised in Chicago (where he was a seat vendor selling peanuts at Wrigley Field), Blake remains an avid Chicago sports fan. The Bulls, Cubs, Bears, and Blackhawks still dominate his evening schedule. That said, as a Texas Longhorns alumni, he bleeds a little burnt orange, too. He moved to Austin for the blues

Jessalyn Thompson

VP of Accounting & Administration

Jessalyn is the VP of Accounting and Administration here at The Chive and is the boss of everyone (at least that’s what she tells us). As the official Chive Fun Police she’s a professional nag and die hard rule follower. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin. Jessalyn is also a licensed CPA… NERD ALERT!!! As a native Texan, Jessalyn’s favorite word is y’all and she’s not afraid to use it.

Gillian Wilson

Senior Director of Human Resources

Known as Beefcake in small circles, and Gilly in most, our Senior Director of Human Resources has an undergraduate degree in Looking (Art History) & a masters in the same! How does all of that equate to HR? Good question. Please let us know when you find out!

In actuality Gilly cut her teeth in the tech startup HR world in 2008, and has been rocking the preverbal HR mic ever since. She is a master at cat herding. The secret?… pepper, not cinnamon!

If you’ve ever heard of or been to Austin’s own Startup Games, then you know who she is! This year, she swears, theCHIVE is going to get some points on the board!

Her favorite question (gender does not matter) to pose: “If you could be either Indiana Jones or Han Solo, which would you be and why?”

Also, the answer is always 42.

Chive Media Group

Chase Arthur

Carlos Baez

Staff Accountant

Hailing from San Diego, Carlos is a loyal fan of the Padres, and the Chargers, although the Chargers aren’t as loyal to San Diego… too soon? He went to school at UNLV, and assures us that he is very competitive, and loves running and volleyball. New to Austin, and Middle Earth (as he’s never lived outside of the West Coast), he is loving the burrito scene, but is still a little skeptical, of the “breakfast taco craze”, but we think it’s growing on him. Only time will tell.

Celest Bejil

Cameron Biehle

Chris Bomely

Creative Director

Bomely was born and raised in the Golden state of California, but has called Austin Texas home for quite some time. Not long enough to call himself a local, but long enough to know where the best dive bars, breakfast tacos and burgers are.

Having worked at a handful of the top ad agencies in Austin and a decent stint as a freelancer, he decided it was time to use what he learned and use his powers for a greater good, and work at probably the best job in the world, theCHIVE.

I know what you’re thinkin’ and the answer is YES. It IS like the Karate Kid, where he learns from that old dude how to fight by paintin’ that stupid fence, and waxing that big ‘ol car, and doing those lame ass chores around his house while that dude got all drunk and cried about the war and slept. Then he got the chance to fight that douchebag Johnny, and he realized that the whole time, he was learning, training for that moment. And he kicks ‘em in that stupid pretty boy face and wins, and gets the girl!

Jill Broek

Chris Brundage

IT Manager

Chris Brundage is our IT Manager. On any given day you can find him cursing at the office printer, or nerding it out with our CTO, Alen. He works behind the scenes to ensure that our systems stay running as smoothly as possible. You can also find him on the front lines assisting our employees with turning things off and on again. Hailing from Florida, Chris spent most of his early years hiding from the sun while tinkering around with his computer.

Eventually, he went on to major in English at the University of Florida because the obvious choice of Computer Science would’ve made life too easy for him. After graduating college he worked several IT jobs in both Florida and Austin, Texas before finding himself at Chive Media Group. Today Chris lives with his fiancée in North Austin. He still enjoys tinkering with his computer in addition to playing video games, watching movies, and going to the Greenbelt.

Emily Burns

Alex Buscemi

Allan Cantu

Ad Ops Manager

If you are reading this, then you must have found something so intriguing in the picture or name that would lead you to take an interest in this Bio. Maybe you realized that you finally found the perfect name for your first-born son. Maybe the picture is so appealing and grand that you had no other choice but to find out whom this person was. Or maybe you are so bored as to cause you to read this small piece of text that has yet to give you any useful information about who this individual is. Face it, by this point you are either laughing or mad that you have so far read 113 words and wasted approximately 28 seconds of your time.

If you really must know, then you can keep staring at the picture, which based on urban legend, is worth 1000 words and should tell you everything you need to know. Have a nice day and hope this piece of writing has given you a new outlook on life and provided you with everything you were looking for.

Heidi Childers Jones

Steve Chive

Intern, the CHIVE

I lost my frog, Rascal. If you find him, stick a shampoo bottle up his ass and send him to Sacramento. From there, go to CVS and ask for a dense badger named “Squirrely”. He’ll send you to an area of Allen County unusually overgrown by thistle native to the highlands of Paraguay. There you will find an unruly bunch of field beagles and their wookie mates celebrating Arbor Day by chili-whacking Latino little people. One particular beagle named Penelope Turnbuckle the 3rd will stand out due to an acute sinus infection of the groin area. Go to him and ask where to find the rapidly blinking rooster, “Go-Gurt”. He’ll tell you where the sea monkies go to watch gay porn with Zoloft. From there you must tread lightly, lest you stumble upon the sea monkies giving Zoloft a chili-whacking of his own. Then my friend, you must find the epileptic illegitimate son of the one-eyed, albino giraffe, “Scab” and his wife, the red-headed queen of mutant desert penguins, “Cheesy”. That son will finalize your commitment to the ways of the wandering Belgian tribe of whooping-cough infected rodents known only as “The Cordon-Blues” He will be awaiting you with Happy Birthday balloons left over from a Christmas party in Yuma, Arizona in May 1993. His name? That is your mission.

Robert Colin

Software Engineer

Robert Colin is the Software Engineer of the mobile team which is based out of Venice, CA. Regarded by his coworkers as a ‘nerd’,’weird’, and ‘who the hell is that?’ he does his best to bring a smile to all of his friends throughout the day. Before coming to work at theCHIVE he was a game developer and before that a grocery store manager. Rob has twice been invited to the White House and has received local recognition from mayor Eric Garcetti and the i.am.angel Foundation for his software development work in Los Angeles. He now spends his days doing app development and eating his own weight in burgers. Rob grew up in the San Fernando Valley where he started left bench on his high school varsity football team. His interests are: the Oakland Raiders, Muse, and video games. If you see him at a meet up feel free to say hi, he’ll be sure to make plenty of awkward small talk with you.

Dustin Dooling

Annie Elias

Executive Assistant

Annie grew up in Dallas and moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas and has never left. Well, that’s not exactly true. After graduation she skipped out of Austin for seven months to go travel around the world. She’s been told that her Instagram was easily confused with National Geographic’s feed during her adventure. She spent a month in a Buddhist temple in Thailand raising tigers and a stint in French Polynesia working as a urinator (not what you think) on a Black Pearl Farm. Fun fact: A pearl diver is called a urinator. After draining her bank account, she returned to Austin to help out at a wakeboarding company and a high-end pet daycare. Annie also nannied for John and Leo’s nephew, Ryland Mercedes, before working at Chive Media Group. She made this transition with ease as she is nannying for the world’s oldest toddler, John Resig.

Mac Faulkner

Jameson Fehlhaber

Software Engineer

Jameson is a Software Engineer for the Chive. His job are like the nuts and bolts to a machine: you don’t see his work but you know it’s being used to help aid the Chive. His duties are to read computer code, write code, and troubleshoot computer code. There is nothing more exciting than that! After school, Jameson began his career in the computer repair field. When tablets became a hit, he felt like there was no growth in this field. He soon became a web developer.

After being in several different developer positions, he now knows various programming languages such as PHP, jQuery, and C#, just to name a few.Outside his work life, Jameson likes to play Call of Duty: Ghosts, play Minecraft on PC, tinker with electronics / solder things, program even more stuff, and analyze anything he can. He also likes to spend time with his beautiful soon-to-be fiancée and his two dogs, Kipper and Olive.

Andrew Fenberg

Producer

Andy Fenberg is the Chive’s video wizard. If you see several moving pictures in a row set to awesome music on theChive, Andy probably made it. He shoots and edits behind the scenes videos, turns clips into gifs, populates the YouTube page, and kicks you in the feels with the occasional Chive Charities video. He’s a recent graduate of YouTube’s certification programs in digital rights management as well as audience growth, with an emphasis in, “Wait, do I seriously need to know this?” After graduating from Washington State University, he moved to Los Angeles to be a screenwriter, but accidentally learned how to edit and has been practically tied to a computer ever since. He’s currently enjoying Austin, loving working for probably the best site in the world, and most likely drunk on tacos.

April Fluitt

Ryan Garcia

Office/Facility Manager

Ryan is the sweaty bald guy that keeps the place running. If he can’t fix it or replace it, he will
take off and just nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. After being in the military
for 10 years, Ryan was having a hard time adjusting. After drifting through the civilian world for a year, Ryan saw theCHIVE was hiring. Looking for the six-fingered man was not paying the bills,
so he applied. He knew it was a long shot, but the longest shots pay off the biggest. He put on
his three-piece suit and started the interview process. Ryan had many things on his plate, his
country’s 500th anniversary to plan and a wedding to arrange…he was swamped. But he kept on and made the grade. The suit was so sharp they
even asked him to wear it again, and Ryan wore the hell out of it. Logistics Sergeant by trade,
Ryan ensures the building is still standing after happy hours. He keeps the beer and sparkling water stocked and will build anything come hell or high water. (Even in that three-piece suit). Every day is something new and Ryan couldn’t be happier doing it! Ryan graduated with a
Bachelor’s of Science, so he literally majored in BS. Ups and downs, strikes and gutters, the bald guy abides.

Sarah Gerber

Programmatic Account Executive

Sarah is a Jersey girl born and bred and also a self-proclaimed bourbon connoisseur, need we say more? After studying to become the next Katie Couric at Rutgers University, Sarah somehow found herself in media where she has spent several years on the publisher, agency and ad tech side of the business. Sarah is an adrenaline junkie who thrives on coffee and has made a sport out of keeping up with industry trends. Oh yeah, and an avid dog lover.

John Gieselmann

Ben Gilliland

Editor, the CHIVE

Ben is a Editor here at theCHIVE, but we’re not sure how because Dougy fires him daily. Ben doesn’t get a detailed bio because we caught him copying and pasting facts about Bruce Jenner, trying to pass them off as facts about himself. A few facts we DO know about Ben is that he was born and raised in Texas, graduated from Tarleton State University, has never fully finished the velociraptor kitchen scene from Jurassic Park and that he can’t read. Seriously. We’re pretty sure he just remember a bunch of his favorite words and then moved on with life.

Zac Goldman

Thom Hackman

Micah Hamilton

Senior QA Engineer

Its pronounced Micah(My - Cah), but don’t shorten it to mike yet… but you can call him friend of all the Chivers and the Chivettes… …ask around, Venice to austin, he’s got a nice rep…in situations where most guys stress…he’s that “out the dryer” type, fresh…hold up…have you even noticed that this rhymed yet?…bout turn this bio into a live set, that’ll get him a headlining slot at Chive fest…see him at the meet up? get hit with a “Nice to meet cha”…and get RAK’d a beer, a shirt, and maybe a slice of pizza…he’s our Sr QA Engineer, that means He’s the guy that points out all the things wrong,…sing songs, and destroys Justin in games of ping pong…

it’s always been his hopeful dream to be the guy on theCHIVE mobile team that you complain to when you experience broken things…so you can end the head searching, because he’s the best person…that send out an email saying “We’ll have it fixed in the next version ”

Travis Hanneman

Manager, Editorial Operations

Travis, an abandoned child raised by wolves, as his peaceful existence threatened by the return of the man-eating tiger Shere Khan. Facing certain death, Travis must overcome his reluctance to leave his wolf family and return to the “man village.” But he is not alone on his quest: Aided by Bagheera the panther, and later by the carefree bear Balloo, he braves the jungle’s many perils.

He was adopted by Chive Media Group’s Director of HR after this information came to light. It was touch and go at the beginning, but it’s all gravy now!

Doug Harrison

Head Video Editor

TO DO LIST: -Grow up in Pittsburgh; drink Yuengling -Hire two private investigators; get them to follow each other -Become professional wrestler, win first match and quit undefeated -Attend University of California, Pennsylvania and Fullsail University -Major in Audio Engineering -Order Pizza with one slice missing to the International OCD Foundation -Move to California; put avocado on everything -Work as Audio Editor; place Wilhelm scream everywhere -Get job at theCHIVE; Get shot with Tee Shirt cannon on first day -Get drunk, find boat full of tea, throw said tea into water -Visit Pearl Harbor; take radar -Play Marvin Gaye album for ginger; reward them with soul -Enforce group hug in an elevator -Build robot; teach him to love -Fill out BIO

Jeff Harrison

Account Director

Jeff Harrison began his journey with Chive Media Group in December, 2013 after meeting co-founder & CEO, Leo Resig at a local watering hole in Austin. Shots were taken, stories were exchanged, and only a few mistakes were made. After a year & 3 months as Office Manager, Jeff was luck enough to make the switch from adult babysitting to an Account Executive role on the Ad Sales team. In his free time, you can find Jeff playing terrible golf, going to concerts and festivals, drinking warm silver tequila, screaming-laughing/snoring and enjoying all that Austin has to offer.

Kate Hayden

Tony Herenda

Senior Producer, CHIVE TV

Talk about a reverse commute, this diehard Los Angeles Kings fan from Southern California decided to leave the Golden State to attend Monmouth University, a quaint lil’ school located on the Jersey Shore… exit 105. There he excelled at being a beer chugging A/V nerd with a passion for sitting in edit bays trying to make things look and sound as bad ass as humanly possible. After his 4 years of college shenanigans ended, Tony stayed on the east coast & took on several professional positions as a creative, his favorite of which included bringing the two loves of his life (motion graphics and getting drunk in bars) together in perfect harmony. After years of hard work creating completely awesome in-bar networks on the East Coast, Tony packed his bags and headed out to the land of hope and dreams to work for us on something brand new here at theChive. It hasn’t exactly gone live yet, so I can’t get into too much detail, but I’ll be sure to re-visit this bio in the future for an update as I know it’s really, Really important. Lets just say it involves booze, babes, fails, and bar stools… and theChive galleries… and videos… on TV… streaming… in bars.

Anywhoo, be sure to say hello if you’re ever in Austin and see a dude with an amazing beard in a black wrangler with New Jersey plates and a KCCO decal driving down the road rocking out to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band… safe to say it’ll be this guy.

Stephen Huskins

Account Director

Stephen is a California native with most of his time spent between the Bay Area & Los Angeles. He did however escape for a quick stint at the University of Arizona, where he studied communications. In 2005 he caught the ad sales bug, and landed a sales internship at Facebook (apparently he was the 1st ever ad sales intern… so there’s that). After leaving FB, he moved on toe the magical world of Disney, and most recently Pandora. In his free time he likes to wakeboard, travel while wakeboarding (it’s hard to drive a car doing it, but somehow, Stephen has mastered this skill). He likes skiing, racing cars at the track (but not while wearing his wakeboard), and participating in charity car events. He also is very contradictory regarding his workouts, and playing his Xbox One… as in he tries hard to work out and NOT get a Dad Bod, but then the Xbox call’s him in. It’s a crafty devil!

Emily Johnson

Business Analyst

Theorizing that one could time travel within her own lifetime, Scientist Emily Johnson stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. She awoke to find herself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not her own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. Her only guide on this journey is Google Analytics, an analytics platform from her own time, which appears in the form of a hologram that only Emily can see and hear. And so, Scientist Johnson finds herself leaping from data point to data point, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that her next leap will be the leap home to theCHIVE.

Mandy Johnson

Assistant Controller

She was once compared to the genius of Will Hunting (that’s Good Will Hunting), which she will proudly boast about, but we haven’t tested her photographic memory or genius IQ yet…so the jury’s still out. She has a real affinity (or addiction) for post-it notes and thinks any excuse to wear a costume is a good one. Also, beware because she is very serious about competition. Very serious.

The 5 C’s she feels make life worth living (in no particular order): Costumes, Competition, Cupcakes, Coffee, and Calculators

Elizabeth Kurzweg

Gil Lang

Senior Brand Strategy Manager

Gil is originally from LA and lived in NYC for about 8 years where he worked in publishing, ad tech and digital ad sales marketing. He’s a big time Arizona Wildcats fan, has an extensive collection of hats and shoes, can quote almost every line of ‘My Cousin Vinny’, and has never declined a dance-off.

Lauren Laronda

Account Director

Lauren hails from the right coast, but currently lives on the left coast. She also is a champion crawfish eater, as she spent a lot of time growing up In Louisiana, before she made it to Austin, TX where she obtained her bachelor’s and ate her fair amount of queso! Outside of the office, she loves to cook, play video games (PlayStation her handles is red_bat_stanat or Xbox Live she’s redbatstanat). No, seriously, that’s an invitation y’all. Go challenge her!

Lora Larson-Miller

Justin Lee

Senior Software Engineer

Justin was born and raised in Los Angeles, but has also spent parts of his life living in San Diego, Denver, and New Jersey. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego where he earned a degree in the modern day sorcery they call computer science. Justin has worked on several projects as a mobile app developer, including a prototyped GPS app for the military, until a greater calling, also known as beautiful beach weather, brought Justin back to Venice, CA. There he aides in the quest to deliver sanity back to the lives of hard working citizens. Being a drummer, you can usually catch Justin rhythmically tapping away at his keyboard at exactly 147 BPM, magically converting 0’s and 1’s into cats and dopamine. When he’s not busy delivering happiness to the world, Justin is usually delivering a vicious spanking in a game of ping pong to Micah (or Mike for short).

Nikki Llorca

Community Coordinator

Mona Lisa. Thriller. Titanic. What do all of these masterpieces have in common? Nothing, but Nikki’s a fan of all of them. But to be fair, he’s a fan of most things, he’s very easy to impress. One of Chive Nation’s exceedingly handsome but very single team members, Nikki’s your main point of contact if you’re looking to get weird while raising funds for good causes.

Outside of theCHIVE office, you can find Nikki instigating dance offs all over Austin (yes that includes dirty 6th), hogging the microphone at any establishment that has karaoke, or falling asleep in random backseats (long story, er… stories). But there will be plenty of time to get into that later; for now – you want a beer?

Mac McCann

Steven McKnight

Andrew Meeks

Account Director

Andrew’s story began in Ohio in the rolling eighties, when his parents gave birth to a colicky, ornery, eating machine on a frigid December evening in otherwise tropical Canton. From birth, he was equal parts showman and know-it-all; a combination that led him to learning the ABC’s before the age of 3 and also constantly correcting grammar at this current stage in life. Andrew’s mild obnoxiousness showed no signs of abating through his childhood, as he quickly withered away his father’s hairline and mother’s patience by climbing on, exploring, questioning or being interested in, everything imaginable. He spent most of his childhood asking his parents to build completely operable robots with real artificial intelligence (neither are scientists) or a function tunnel underneath the house to a hidden lair (neither are engineers) and wondering why it couldn’t be done. Through his young life, Andrew remained incredibly curious and creative, and found a natural attraction to art, singing, music, dancing and performing in general. He spent an entire evening in a pre-school musical with his eyes covered, proving that the world was ready for his voice, but he just wasn’t ready for them yet.
“Meeks,” as he is almost universally hailed, spent his formative adolescence traversing through a remarkably long ‘I’m Smarter Than My Parents’ phase, and dedicated himself through high school and college to finding new ways to make an ass of himself in front of larger and larger groups of people. These included a thankfully-short-lived infatuation of falling down purposefully in public and making up musical numbers about literally everything, something he still practices regularly today. He also developed a penchant for attempting terrible foreign accents and, much to his mother’s merriment, continues the offensively bad voices to this day. After convincing his parents that sending him unsupervised to a state university was a good idea, Andrew found his stride and went on to (thankfully) graduate with honors with degrees in advertising and marketing from Kent State University.
After leaps, bounds, several moves, a period of stunning cognitive development that vaguely resembles maturity, different jobs in both the agency world and client-side marketing, he is now representing all of Chive Nation. He travels frequently, but always allows time for a round of golf, a great meal or a fun concert. He relishes time on his amazing couch, planning the next “big trip,” voraciously reading, catching up with old friends and finding the next incredible Netflix show. Andrew lives in Chicago (the last great American city) with his wife.

Charles Melshenker

Account Executive

I was a senior in high school when 9/11 hit, and at that point I knew I was going to serve. I waited a couple years to make sure it was the right decision, but after watching young motivators getting some on CNN, I knew I would regret it if I didn’t make my move. So I joined the Marine Corps in Dec. 2004. I went to boot camp at MCRD San Diego, and was stationed in Hawaii with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines Alpha Co. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 in a rural province of Jalalabad, and served in Operation Mountain Lion to infiltrate the Korengal Valley. I again deployed with my same infantry unit in 2007 to Iraq, outside of Hadeetha. We were part of General Petraeus’ surge that took control of a Chaotic country. I ended my service for my last 5 months with the Military Police, and got out in Dec of 2008 with an honorable discharge. Since then I received a bachelors degree in History from California State University of Northridge on the GI Bill. Now some how I landed a dream job as office manager for theCHIVE in Venice California.

Monica Moreau

Will Morse

Craig Murphy

Account Manager

Craig hails from Cork City, Ireland… yep, we now have an official Irishman on our Sales Staff!

Craig went to school just outside of NYC on a track scholarship specializing in 5k & 10k’s. Apparently his running skills were so amazing that he snagged a sweet American woman, who he convinced to move back to Ireland with him to woo her properly… you know, in the rain and the cold! Guess what? It worked! He eventually decided to make right by her and move back to the states to the San Francisco Bay area for 2 years before moving back to NYC to work for theCHIVE!! We’re glad he’s here!

Drew Murray

Joe O'Dea

Jeremy Olson

Editor

We aren’t making this up. When our video editor Jeremy Olson was a kid in Tyler, Texas, he hosted two shows on public access TV: a kid’s animal show and a kid’s cooking show. These are absolutely true facts. His first job after being a FAMOUS CHILD ACTOR was at Blockbuster Video, which somehow feels very ironic to us, considering how he was fired for stealing Pauly Shore movies.

The sad fact is, however, that Jeremy Olson actually died several years ago. It was a freak accident involving a boom mic, several fashion models and a 16-inch Dell Latitude laptop. If you see Jeremy now, you’re actually only experiencing his poltergeist. So, in order to conduct the proper exorcism, you’re going to need to place the following materials in a basket and set them outside of your video-editing bay:
1) A Smashmouth CD, preferably the one with “Walking On the Sun”
2) A free month subscription to AOL Online
3) A super 8 camera
4) A VHS of “Dumb and Dumber”
5) A sixer of Lone Star

Once the Jeremy Ghost is no longer inhabiting your television, you’ll release him into the world, so his soul is once again free to watch “Biodome” in peace.

James Perkins

Bob Phillipp

Head Editor, the CHIVE/ Podcast Host

Bob is the proud cousin of John, Leo, Emily and Megan and like all other CHIVE employees hails from Fort Wayne, Indiana. A place where the women fluctuate with the changing of the seasons and the beer flows like…well beer, I guess. Indiana University is the college where he spent his golden years perfecting the craft of not getting laid. Mission accomplished. As for how he got here, well lets just say his legacy proceeds him. Some say he is the aftermath of a science experiment gone horribly wrong when doctors attempted to cross pollinate a Venus fly trap with a Welsh prostitute. Others say he is the offspring of a yeti and Bigfoot.

All we know is, he’s unpredictable at best. But to be serious people, Bob’s actually a decent guy. Currently he’s trying to work out the semantics behind pulling off Santa Clause’s impossible feat of delivering a gift to every child in the world on Christmas day. So far he’s made his way from the states all the way through the eastern block of Russia. For any pointers or ideas you might have, and wisdom you seek, you can find him in beautiful Austin, TX.

Rick Phillipp

Senior Editor, the CHIVE

Using a wealth of knowledge gained from the movie “Stripes” paired with an ol’ man that loves cars, I have embarked on the journey that is running theBrigade and theThrottle. Keeping it in the family, I lived with my cousins John and Leo (they started theChive) along with my brother Bob (head editor of theChive) back in the city of California. From there, I met a smokin’ hot gal…got married…had a kid…haven’t slept since. Since launching theBrigade/Throttle back in 2010, it has been a great opportunity to meet the many people from the auto world and the men and women that serve our country. Quick back-story, I worked with the U.S. Army for 4 years prior to starting theBrigade. Leo and I had a conversation about how the military was not showing the “real” human side of the men and women serving (from military to firefighters to the Police). It is my personal goal to not only show the heroic side of soldiers/FD/Police but just as importantly, showing the guys having fun and the hard reality of missing loved ones at home. In my opinion, that human side is what makes our military true heroes that future generations should look up to for life-long inspiration.

Patrick Rogers

Kelby Ruiz

Sebastian Salinas

Senior Editor, the CHIVE

As a young nino growing up in Mexico working on my uncles ostrich farm, I knew one day I would end up in America. Well…I’ve always been from California and I actually graduated from USC in agriculture sciences, and soon after landed my dream job. Landscaping duty at theCHIVE offices in Venice Beach. After being mistaken for Mario Lopez countless times, I was hired as the official Chive product shot model.

It was hard work at first, the trenches can be a dark, dark place. But from the depths of theCHIVE basement, I emerged as a beautiful butterfly. Finally as Editor/ lead female advisor/ fantasy football office champ, I have left my reputation as best hedge trimmer in town to a valuable beer drinking asset to the company.

Steven Sansone

Tim Sharkey

Programmatic Sales Manager

Born and raised in Northern New Jersey (as a former hitman for the Soprano crime family). I attended West Virginia University and majored in Communication and Advertising. After college I worked in Manhattan for 2 years at MediaVest as a network buyer on the Sprint account. Coming to Austin on vacation for a WVU-Texas football game, I quickly fell in the love with the city and up and moved a few months later. For the past 2 years I’ve worked as a National TV buyer at Latinworks/nTrigue media.

Throughout high school and college I spent my summers in Nantucket, MA working as a caddie at Sankaty Head Golf Club. My spare time is made up of golf, watching any sporting event (Jets, Knicks, Rangers, Yankees), or doing bar trivia. I dont like the feel of paper, I think people who write in pencil are closet serial killers and I’ve cried from a Dodge commercial.

Josh Sullivan

David Tanana

PJ Thompson

Director of Sales Operations

PJ serves as Director of Sales Operations at Chive Media Group, focusing on sales planning and operations to support advertising sales. He is originally from Killeen, Tx (neighbor to Fort Hood…GO ARMY!) and a graduate of Texas State University. When not in the HQ Austin office you can find PJ putting miles in running around Austin, paddle boarding and eating at his neighborhood favorite beer garden Banger’s on Rainey St.

Steven Wilson

Taylor Wood

Audience Development Manager

Now, this is a story all about how, My life got flipped-turned upside down, And I’d like to take a minute, Just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became an employee of a place called theCHIVE. In South West Houston born and raised, On the Texas State campus was where I spent most of my days, Singing’ at max dancin’ all “cool”, And writing some papers inside of the school, When a couple of Chivers who were up to all good, Started making RAKS around my neighborhood, I started one little dream my mom was proud, She said ‘You’re movin’ with your roomie and puppy to Aus-tin! I loaded up my car, and when I came near, The Capitol looked close and I saw 6th in the mirror, If anything I could say that this city was weird, But I thought ‘Yeah, It’s Awesome’ - ‘Yup, I’m finally here.” I pulled up to the office about 7 or 8, And I spoke to my Momma ‘Here, Mom call ya later’, I looked at the kingdom, I was finally there, To sit on my throne doing marketing at theCHIVE.

William Young

E-Commerce

Stefanie Adamson

Director of Merchandising

Stefanie (our Director of Merchandising), is here to keep our shit straight and make sure all of our Chivers have access to the best products ever. When she’s not busy building pivot tables, she’s dreaming about puppies and shoes. As a native Texan, she believes everything here really is bigger and better, especially the meat. She thanks the good lord everyday for college football and The Fightin’ Texas Aggies. Having lived in Austin most her life, she can say with absolute certainty that you will not like it here, so please stay put. The population growth is hampering her chances of being cast on The Real Housewives of Austin, and she doesn’t like it one bit.

Brandon Barrett

Co-Founder & President - William Murray Golf

Dear Fellow Chivers-I accept the fact that I had to sacrifice space on this page to write you a bio about myself for whatever reasons our company deems necessary. But, I think they’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who I think I am. What do you care? They see me, as they want to see me: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. They see me as a talker, a salesman, an athlete, an entertainer, and their Director of Partnerships. Correct? That’s the way they saw me on January 13, 2014 at nine o’clock in the morning. They were brainwashed…

Alex George

Zachary Lee

Senior Director, the Chivery

Jack of all trades in the office Zachary Lee is the Brand Director of The Chivery. Maintaining everything in and out of The Chivery, Zach enjoys being thrown into very hilarious and sometimes awkward situations, which is a normal occurrence here at the office.

Eric Mahlstadt

Patrick McManis

Director of Customer Experience

Patrick aka “Patty” McManis is Director for theCHIVE’s apparel e-commerce site, The Chivery. Patrick attended Hanover College where he majored in Theatre and Drinking and became good friends with John. Already having dedicated himself to the subtle arts of debauchery, he moved to the only place that would accept him, Los Angeles. After various half-hearted attempts to “make it” as a working actor, Patty resigned himself to profitably managing a retail store in general obscurity for the rest of his existence.

Fortune smiled, however, when John and Leo plucked Patty from inside Plato’s cave and installed him as a part of theCHIVE team. His hobbies include apiculture, competitive découpage, and working on his world-class collection of scorpion bolo ties. Patty currently lives in Austin, TX, owns a pair of boots, and has no plans on shaving this week.

Kerry Michaels

Co-Founder & COO - William Murray Golf

Kerry grew up on the mean streets of the roughest,toughest, neighborhood in all of Florida. She gained her street cred by rough housing with a pack of wild animals. They’d hit the streets every day until the nightly explosions rocked the dark sky. These weren’t your average animals. They were massive in stature and even bigger in legend.

Not just any kid can survive growing up in Disney World. But Kerry is one of a kind.

She took her talents to North Carolina, Indiana, Connecticut, California, and now Texas. She has now come full circle, attempting to wrangle a new pack of wild animals that refer to themselves as “The Chivery.”

Kyle Shafer

Senior Director of Product Development - William Murray Golf

Keep Calm and Wear a Helmet. Words that Kyle James Shafer, AKA “Uno”, has heard long before his family at the Chive adopted him. His unbridled love for life has slammed him head-first into a boatload of situations that he can tell his grandchildren one day - as long as he can remember them. After years of coming up with the most creative hand-crafted Halloween costumes this side of the Mississippi, the California-born wild child took his talents to the best website in the world. When he’s not chasing down babes on the boardwalk on his unicycle whilst juggling, or repeatedly landing on his head, Kyle is dedicated to make sure you’re getting the best shirts ever made whilst ensuring they’re landing on your doorsteps. Kyle Shafer: Director of Product & Buying (extraordinaire) for The Chivery.

Emily Somers

Customer Experience Representative

One of the members to the badass customer experience team, Emily Snow came to The Chivery from 2011’s “Drunkest City in America”, Fresno, CA. She claims she got to Texas as fast as she could, she sees nothing wrong with a state that eats tacos for every meal and prides itself on everything being “bigger”. Emily can proudly quote pretty much every episode of “Friends” even when she is five Jack & Cokes into the night. Life goals include traveling the world and being better at making cupcakes than Betty Crocker.

Here at The Chivery she get’s to chat it with up with all you crazies on a daily basis. To save you time though she would like you to know that, “Yes, Mac is really that weird. No, Nikki doesn’t actually live in a banana suit. Yes, you are actually chatting with a human. No, it’s not weird your’e watching the live cam while we chat (creeper alert).” Anything besides that she is more than happy to assist you with!

Ben Weaver

Director of Brand Licensing & Partnerships

Ben Weaver, AKA Beaver. As one of the few native Texans on the team, he didn’t have to travel far to find his calling as the Director of Brand L&P for The Chivery. Beaver works diligently to develop products that members of Chive community will love…and is pretty damn good at it. When the Beavinator isn’t busy trying to piss off Justina, he spends his time doing karate in his garage. I hear his roundhouse kick is pretty mean. What the hell are we doing here, Harry? We gotta get out of this town! Oh yeah, and go where? Where are we gonna go? I’ll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talking about a little place called Aspen. Oh, I don’t know, Lloyd. The French are assholes. Wait a minute, you only wanna go there to see that girl who left her briefcase. Yeah so? Yeah so! So I wanna go someplace where we know someone who can plug us into the social pipeline. I’m sick and tired of being a nobody. But most of all . . I’m sick and tired of having nobody.

Chive Charities

Brian Mercedes

Executive Director

Brian Mercedes is the Executive Director at Chive Charities. From Fort Wayne, IN, he spent his college years not remembering his college years at the University of Dayton, where someone let him escape with a Marketing degree. He decided to delay reality by moving to the Dominican Republic and get in touch with his roots become a professional baseball player. What started as a 6 month sabbatical became 4 years in tropical paradise running the marketing and sales for a tour operator.

Returning stateside to Atlanta, he worked a stint in the healthcare industry while finally reconnecting with his lifelong crush, Emily Resig. He eventually asked Emily if she wanted a really cool new last name. Emily’s brothers, John and Leo, approached Brian with an idea to change the charitable giving paradigm but they didn’t know how to get started. Chive Charities was born. In his spare time Brian enjoys traveling, playing with his new son Ryland and writing bios about himself in the third person.

Erika Carley

Director of Strategic Development

Erika was born on an island, a 35 minute boat ride from Seattle. North Face jacket and Birkenstock-clad, she made her way to Los Angeles, only to find that her PNW fashion-sense was totally unacceptable. After graduating from Loyola Marymount University (she had lost the North Face but kept the Birks), she worked behind the scenes as a producer for Mike Tollin and Mandalay Sports Media. Then, the non-profit world called and she said, “okay, I’m in.” Cut to 2015: she moved to Austin with her husband, convinced him to get a dog so she wouldn’t have children (yet), and landed a job with Chive Charities — the only place she lets herself get super greedy. If she isn’t convincing companies to partner and/or give sponsorship money, you can find her on the Greenbelt trails or more probable, eating everything in the great city of Austin.

Angela Cone

Senior Director of Programs

Angie Cone moved to Austin from Michigan where she hung out with Eminem and other Detroit celebrities on 8 mile. She attended the University of Michigan to obtain her Masters Degree in Social Work. Angie has worked for the past 10 years in variety of social work roles spanning from specialized foster care to providing navigational guidance to cancer patients​ in our complex health care system. Angie was the first hire of Chive Charities. In her role as the Program Director she manage​s​ all small and large scale grants and recipient relationships. Outside of working Angie enjoys watching football, going to concerts and running…mainly away from Mac.